Page:The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade.djvu/739

 way were fired on by the other party. They returned the fire, and an irregular fight then ensued, in which a man by the name of Cook, of the pro-slavery party, received a mortal wound, and two of the free state party wore slightly wounded.

Mr. Brown, with seven others who had accompanied him from from Leavenworth, started on their return home. When they had proceeded part of the way, they were stopped and taken prisoners by a party of men called the Kickapoo Rangers, under the command of captain John W. Martin. They were disarmed and taken back to Easton, and put in Dawson's store. Brown was separated from the rest of his party, and taken into the office of E. S. Trotter. By this time several of Martin's party and some of the citizens of the place had become intoxicated, and expressed a determination to kill Brown. Captain Martin was desirous, and did all in his power to save him. Several hours were spent in discussing what should be done with Brown and his party. In the meantime, without the knowledge of his party, captain Martin liberated all of Brown's party but himself, and aided them in their escape. The crowd repeatedly tried to get into the room where Brown was, and at one time succeeded, but were put out by Martin and others. Martin, finding that further effort on his part to save Brown was useless, left and went home. The crowd then got possession of Brown and finally butchered him in cold blood. The wound of which he died was inflicted with a hatchet by a man by the name of Gibson. After he had been mortally wounded, Brown was sent home with Charles Dunn, and died that night. No attempt was made to arrest and punish the murderers of Brown. Many of them were well-known citizens, and some of them were officers of the law. On the next grand jury that set in Leavenworth county, the sheriff summoned several of the persons implicated in this murder. One of them was M. P. Rively, at that time treasurer of the county. He has been examined as a witness before us. The reason he gives why no indictments were found is, "they killed one of the pro-slavery men, and the pro-slavery men killed one of the others, and I thought it was about mutual." The same grand jury, however, found bills of indictment against those who acted as judges of the free-state election. Rively says, "I know our utmost endeavors were made to fiqd out who acted as judges and clerks on the 17th of January last, and at all the bogus elections held by the abolitionists here. We were very anxious to find them out, as we thought them acting illegally."

Your committee, in their examination, have found that in no case of crime or homicide, mentioned in the report or in the testimony, has any indictment been found against the guilty party, except in the homicide of Clark by McCrea, McCrea being a free state man.

Your committee did not deem it within their power or duty to take testimony as to events which have transpired since the date of their appointment; but as some of the events tended seriously to embarrass, hinder, and delay their investigations, they deem it proper here to refer to them. On their arrival in the territory, the people were arrayed in two hostile parties. The hostility of them was continually increased during our stay in the territory, by the arrival